It should be the case that if you pay for a template you get a preview link where the PDF has a watermark on it, and the only way to remove that watermark is to pay.
I agree it's way too many steps and am trying to figure out how to make it easier and more seamless without delivering people something they don't actually want.
Maybe having the cards on the front page might help. You've invested a lot of screen realestate on explaining the product. You could probably make this https://www.placecard.me/try/ your homepage, have the instruction in the banner and have the product in front of the user right away.
I agree it's way too many steps and am trying to figure out how to make it easier and more seamless without delivering people something they don't actually want.